Systematic studies of
Asian Huns (Hsiungnu or Xiongnu) have been carried out already for more than a century. At present,
materials of considerable value in the characterisation of settlement
complexes (the Ivolga fortress, the Dureny settlement) and cemeteries of various types
(the cemeteries of Ivolga, Cheremukhovaya Pad, Derestuy etc.) have been obtained. Today,
the single gap in our knowledge is the almost complete lack of information
about burials of the Xiongnu elite. Meanwhile, such burials (traditionally
called ‘royal') usually contain valuable information for characterisation
both of the material and spiritual culture of a community and of its social
structure.

In 1996, the Trans-Baikal Expedition (Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Science),
conducted by Dr. Sergey Minyaev, investigated one of the Xiongnu cemeteries
in the Tsaram valley situated
1.5
km
to the south of the Naushki village (Buryatiya
Republic, Russian Federation),
2
km
to the south of the Kyakhta–Naushki highway, and
5 km
from the
Selenga river). The investigation showed that it concentrated the
largest of the now known burial structures of Xiongnu in
Russia
, and those of the largest
in the world. During the season of 1997, the Trans-Baikal Expedition started
systematic studies at the site. The archaeological evidence, accumulated at
that time, suggested the presence of human sacrifices in the Xiongnu burial
practice — the fact which is confirmed also by written sources. The
planigraphy of Xiongnu cemeteries exhibits a clear tendency of aggregating
graves in burial complexes, which consisted of a central barrow and sacrifice
graves arranged around it according to a certain system. A number of
excavations showed that interred in the latter burials were persons who died
a violent death, and who, it seems, were ‘sacrifice' their master to the
“other world” (cf. for details: Миняев 1985; 1998: 70-71).

Studies in the Tsaram cemetery were planned with due regard for the above facts.
The largest barrow, located in the northern area of the valley, was chosen as
the focus of the investigations. The excavation, carried out here, included
both the kurgan itself and the area surrounding it, where separate surface
stones suggested the presence of small barrows with disturbed embankments.
The total excavated area, including that of
Kurgan
7, amounted to 7700 sq. metres.
Taking into account that stone courses probably had been displaced during
ploughing up, the entire area under investigation was excavated without gaps
down to the natural soil, irrespective of the presence of any signs of
burials on the surface.

The excavations at the central
Kurgan
7, where a complex inner structure was discovered in the grave, still are not
completed. The purpose of this paper is publication of the data on sacrifice
burials of
Kurgan
7. They were found ranged
in two lines, 5 graves in each, on the western and eastern sides of
Kurgan
7 and undoubtedly formed a single
burial complex with the latter. The burial no. 10 is peculiar to
sacrifice burials of the complex.

The eastern group of sacrifice burials. In this group, in all 5 burials have
been found, located 3-
4 m
from each other and
25 m
from the eastern wall of Kurgan 7 (burials 6,8,9,10,11). The northernmost
burial 10 of the group was
25
m
to the east from the north-eastern corner of the
overgrave structure of
Kurgan
7, the southernmost burial 11 was
21 m
to the east of the south-eastern corner
of the central kurgan. Thus the line of these burials was directed
north–south, deviating only slightly to the west in its southern part.

The western group of sacrifice burials. This group consisted of the five
burials – nos. 12, 13,14,15,16. Before the excavations, to the west of the
Kurgan7,
in
the underbrush of bushes and low elm trees, it was
possible to trace remains of barrows on the modern surface. They represented
a depression 1.2 m deep, enclosed by a low earthen bank, and outcrops of
large stone slabs and smaller boulders on the surface of the ploughed field.
Similarly to the eastern group, during excavation of the entire area of the
western group one found 5 burials ranged in a line, 3-
4 m
from each other
and
25 m
from the western wall of Kurgan 7. Burial no. 12 — the northernmost
of the group — was situated
24
m
to the west of the NW corner of the overgrave
structure of Kurgan 7; the southernmost burial no. 16 was
28 m
to the south-west of
the SW corner of Kurgan 7. The line of these burials, in general, was
directed north–south, the graves in the middle of it being ranged strictly
from north to south and the outermost ones (nos. 12 and 16) slightly
deviating to the east in the southern part. It is possible that these burials
also have had overgrave structures, later disturbed and displaced during
agricultural works. In general, the western line of these burials is almost
mirror-symmetrical to the eastern one, differing from the latter only by its
greater length (the total length of the group was
46 m
).

The grave pits of burials of the two groups were expressed in brown
humus-containing sandy loam with inclusion of charcoals and fine gravel; they
had rectangular form with rounded angles. The inner structures of the grave were
wooden coffins or wooden coffins in stone cists. All graves had been robbed,
separate bones of the skeleton were found displaced in the fill of the pit.

Round and rectangular iron plates; iron and horn arrowheads, horn
arrow-whistles, horn bow-laths, horn check-pieces, horn buckles, a bronze
bell, an iron knife, a horn saddle-bow, fragments of red varnish, vessels
were found in the sacrifice burials both in the western and eastern lines.

On the basis of the characteristic groups of grave goods and
14C
analyses, all the burials
described above may be dated to the
1 st
century B.C. –
1 st
century A.D.

* * *

The practice of human sacrifices in the burial tradition of Xiongnu was
recorded already by their contemporaries — ancient Chinese chroniclers.
Ssu-ma
Ch'ien
(145–87 B.C.), who the first
compiled information about Xiongnu in his “Historian Records”, mentioned that
“the most beloved servants and concubines followed the deceased into the
grave, and the greatest number of such persons amounted to several thousand
or hundreds”. It seems, a number of several thousand of such “servants
and concubines” was doubted already at that time. It is not accidental, that
Pan Gu, the author of “The History of Han”, when redacting the text of the
“Historian Records” replaced “several thousand or hundreds” in the above
phrase for “several tens or one hundred” These divergences show that Han
historians had not have in their disposition the precise information about
the number of humans offered in sacrifice during burials of Xiongnu elite.

The first reliable information on such sacrifices was obtained from the
Derestuy cemetery. During excavations of this site by entire areas it was
discovered that the burials were arranged into complexes consisting of a central
barrow surrounded by sacrifice burials, the number of the latter varying from
one to three. The characteristic injuries on skeletons in sacrifice burials
suggested with a high degree of probability a violent death of the interred
(for details see: Миняев 1998: 41, 70).

Excavation of Complex no. 7 at Tsaram essentially supplemented the data
obtained from the Dyrestuy cemetery. Similarly to Dyrestuy, at Tsaram also characteristic
injuries were registered on skeletons. Yet Complex
7 in
terms of its major
peculiarities differs principally from the Dyrestuy burial complexes. We
shall now consider these differences more closely.

The number of sacrifice burials in Complex
7 am
ounts to 10, that exceeds several times the number
of such burials in any complex at Derestuy. The planigraphy of the Tsaram
burials also is different: if at Dyrestuy the sacrifice burials were located
predominantly near the south-western or south-eastern corner of the central
barrow, at Tsaram they formed two rows, 5 burials in each, ranged almost
symmetrically relative the main kurgan at its eastern and western sides.

As it is seen on the plan of the complex, not only the principles of
arranging the burials in different groups, but also the sex and age
composition of the interred are identical. Both in the western and eastern
groups, only males were interred, a certain dependence between the position
of a burial within the group and the age of the interred being clearly
observable. The oldest (and almost of the same age of 35 years) men were
buried in the northernmost graves (
Kurgan10 in
the eastern group and
Kurgan12 in
the western). The age
of the other dead consequently diminishes from north to south: the younger
men and adolescents (aged 25-15 on average) were buried in the middle of each
row, and in the southernmost graves (11 and 16) children of practically the
same age (4-6 years old) were interred.

Differences depending on the position of a grave in the group may be observed
also in the composition of the food laid for the dead. Thus bones of several
animals both of large and small horned cattle (for which a special catacomb
in the northern wall of the pit was made) were found in Kurgan 10 (the
northernmost burial of the eastern group), while in Kurgan 6 (next to the
last in the eastern row) there were only bones of one sheep or goat (ribs and
a tibia). One should add, that in
Kurgan
10
the single horse skull was found.

All of the burials had been robbed. This fact makes the complete
reconstruction of the composition and quantity of the grave goods impossible.
We note, however, that weapons — bows (of which tip and central plates
usually are preserved), iron and horn arrowheads and iron belt-plates were
found practically in all of the graves of men and adolescents. Numerous are
also parts of horse harness — cheekpieces made of horn in kurgans 6, 11 and
15, and a horn saddle bow in Kurgan 15.

Burials 11 and 16, the southernmost in each group, are an exception from the
rule described above. Notwithstanding that the interred were children, the
structures inside these graves were more complicated than those in the
neighbouring burials of an adolescent and a young man located to the north.
In the eastern group, in grave 11 (child 4-6 years old), a wooden coffin was
found in a stone cist covered with several courses of slabs, while a 16 year
old adolescent in the neighbouring grave 6 was buried only in a coffin. In
the western group, the child in grave 16 (age-at-death 5 years) was buried in
a wooden coffin placed in an imitation of stone cist constructed of several
large slabs, although in the neighbouring grave
15, a
man 25-30 years old
was buried only in a coffin. The child burials practically all have been
robbed, nevertheless the remains of the varnish coating of a wooden cup found
in Kurgan 16 (reminding by the pattern of its decoration the one found in
Kurgan 6 at the cemetery of Noin-Ula), a vessel and an iron belt plate from
Kurgan 11, similar to those found in other burials, suggest that the grave
inventory in these child graves did not yield, at least qualitatively, to the
grave goods of adults.

The signs of violent death noted above lead to the conclusion that the
described burials of armed men and adolescents, which surrounded the central
Kurgan
7, may be considered as the burials of
“servants” mentioned in written documents — a kind of the chief's
“body-guards” — killed during the funeral ceremony and “sacrifice” their
master to the other world. It seems, that within such social group of
“servants” a number of ranks existed, and this fact was reflected in the
revealed differences between the burial structures in different groups of
sacrifice burials.

The status of the children buried in graves 11 and 16 thus far is not quite
clear. They were buried together with the adult “servants” in the
southernmost graves of the groups, completing logically the sex-and-age
structure of each line of burials (the age-of-death decreasing from northern
graves to the southern). Possibly, these facts indicate that:

– by their origin these children belonged to the same social category of
“servants” and were to inherit one of its ranks;

– the level of this inherited rank should potentially be higher in the other
world than the actual lifetime status of the adolescent (eastern group) and
young man (western group) interred in the neighbourhood of these children;

– for these children therefore, in correspondence with their potential rank,
more complex burial structures than for the older servants, interred close
by, were constructed.

Thus, in terms of the number of burials, their planigraphy, sex composition
of the interred and sets of grave goods, the sacrifice burials of Tsaram
significantly differ from similar burials at the Dyrestuy cemetery, where
mostly women with various belt sets and adolescents were buried. One could
suppose that these differences resulted of a differing status of the persons
interred in central barrows of the cemeteries. While at Dyrestuy, burial
structures and funerary sets in central kurgans suggest that the interred
belonged to the ordinary society, the central Kurgan 7 at Tsaram, judging by
its size and peculiarities of its construction, was a burial of some
representative of the highest Xiongnu elite, or possibly even one of the
chiefs ( shan-y ? ).

Of course, the suppositions proposed above must be verified during
investigations of other burial complexes of elite using the method of
excavation by entire areas. Also promising seems employing of the
palaeogenetic analysis for definition of the degree of kinship of the
interred both in separate complexes and throughout the entire cemetery.